Making Some Minimalistic Techno

[Rev. Rye]

Oh and yeah I totally know about the loudness war. I didn't realize my song was loud. You must have your volume turned up high... I always have mine near the bottom

That way my songs are only super loud when you have the volume up max

The idea is maximally loud should only happen at maximum loudness

I almost always have my volume right down the bottom. Even when recording....so of course if you want your music quiet then have the volume on low

Seriously, you didn't notice that the fact that most of the Soundform waveform for "Minimal 2" was almost completely flat, implying a complete lack of dynamics.

Here's the thing: dynamics is a big part of what makes music interesting.

Just to take one example, here's the orginal mix of "Killing in the Name of". The original release of that album is actually praised and is actually used by many audiophiles to test equipment. Now listen to the "Fuck You I won't do what you tell me!" section about three minutes in, how Zack de la Rocha's lyrics slowly build up from whispers to screams, and the mastering reflects that:





And then, 20 years later, they really dropped the ball. Notice how, despite the fact that while you can notice when his delivery changes, the volume really doesn't.





Really, it's not about simple volume. It's about poor mastering making music that should sound good a lot worse. And, yes, some of the most famous producers in music today, like David Friedman and Rick Rubin, are notorious for this. Really, after looking into this, I can't help but think that something like this is happening throughout the mastering rooms of the music world (start around 2 minutes in):





Bear in mind that the biggest catalyst for this was the heavily brickwalled mix of "Wonderwall," produced by Noel Gallagher in the height of his cocaine addiction.